‘Sources’ and ‘Linda’ take top honors

Montanari wins best performance for ‘Hunter’

LOS ANGELES, April 12, (RTRS): Period dramas were the big winners on the day at Canneseries and Mip TV’s In Development pitching sessions. German 1993-set murder-mystery “The Sources of Evil” and Canadian 1978-based “Whatever, Linda,” were announced as joint winners of the two prizes granted at the event by Federation Entertainment and La Fabrique des Formats.

Pascal Breton’s Federation Ent. (“Marseille”) one of the most energetic of independent Europe-based production-sales houses, will co-develop, co-produce and distribute the two winners, while the French film-TV think-tank La Fabrique des Formats will help with financing.

Twelve projects competed in total, eight classified as in development and four as a more upstream early-stage. The sessions were designed to allow the projects, chosen from more than 300 submissions representing 46 countries, to pitch to a bevy of high-level industry professionals who fired off often highly relevant questions after an eight-minute or so presentation.

“The Sources of Evil” is set in former East Germany, during a period in which initial enthusiasm after the Wall came down has started to wane, and a depressed malaise slowly creeps in to replace it. As hard-core right-wing agitators commit acts of violence and theft across the city, the local police are steadily losing control of the streets. Amidst this rising chaos, the mutilated body of a young woman is discovered near the former East-West border.

Investigate

Two detectives are called in to investigate, and initial clues direct the partners towards the emerging Neo-Nazi scene. But, the more experienced of the two thinks they might be looking for a serial killer who was allowed to operate with near impunity due to the confusion between the governments of East and West Germany.

Germany’s Hamburg and Berlin-based Wuste Film is producing the series with TV vet Catharina Junk writing. In the past Junk has worked on feature films and TV, including two International Emmy nominated series: “13 Hours: Race Against Time,” and “Berlin, Berlin.”

Omri Givron, co-creator of famed series “Hostages,” proved the big winner at the first Canneseries festival taking Best Series for the fast paced Israel/Colombia-set drama-thriller “When Heroes Fly,” which he created, wrote and directed.

Produced by Spiro Films (“Foxtrot” and “Lebanon”), “When Heroes Fly” is sold by Keshet Intl. It turns on a former 2006 Lebanon war combatant who reunites with his estranged commando unit comrades to rescue the love of his life, abducted by a cartel in Colombia, and who’s disappearance, exacerbating the impact gov his war experience, has reduced her to a guilt ridden psychiatric case.

The 58-year-old is also being investigated over similar allegations in London and Nantucket, an island off the coast of Massachusetts. (AFP)

NEW YORK:

One of the earliest Harvey Weinstein accusers says that despite the #MeToo reckoning, it’s “open season”

on survivors who dare speak out about sexual misconduct.

Italian actress and filmmaker Asia Argento writes in an essay that she has been called a liar, traitor, opportunist and more since accusing Weinstein last year of sexually assaulting her in 1997.

She says some of the worst criticism toward women speaking out

Kicking off with an impactful portrayal of an ambush in the Lebanon war in its first episode, seen at Cannes, “When Heroes Fly” looks set to develop into a series on the trauma and loss violence wreaks an a once close-knit group of friends.

Beyond “When Heroes Fly” the other big winners at Canneseries were Norway’s “State of Happiness” and “The Hunter.”

Francesco Montanari won best performance for “The Hunter,” one of two Beta Film-sold movies in competition, with “The Typist.” In “The Hunter,” he plays a driven Palermo prosecutor, responsible in true-life the arrest of dozens of Mafiosi. Typically for a modern drama series, his character is eminently nuanced, as ambitious as honest in his expose of his boss’ corruption in Ep. 1, and a man who cares more about his work than his lovely wife.

Norwegian Mette M. Bolstad (“Nobel”), one of Scandinavia’s emerging screenwriters, won best screenplay for “State of Happiness.” produced by Maipo Film (“Elling”), set from 1969 in hidebound fishing port Stavengan, and backed by Norwegian pubcaster NRK. The award went to a retro ensemble drama which, like Denmark’s “Something’s Rockin’,” targets a wide audience as it attempts to relate the wrenching modernization of Norway through the love lives of two young women who are liberated by Norway’s oil boom.

“State of Happiness” also took best music (Jan Inge “Ginge” Anvik), an award included in Canneseries’ first list of plaudits to emphasize the importance of score and sound in modern series, said Albin Lewi, Canneseries artistic director.

The Best Digital Series plaudit went to “Dominos,” a well-received five-part web series from young Montreal writer-director Zoe Pelchat about two brothers in a tough ‘burb of Montreal struggling to adapt after their mother’s sudden death. It was aired on Canada’s TV5, signaling Pelchat as a talent to track,

The male ensemble cast of “Miguel” scooped the Special Performance Prize for their performance in a series about a man’s crusade to adopt a child. “Miguel” is written by Daphna Levin, a writer on the “In Treatment” and “Euphoria” Israeli originals, and produced by David Mandil’s Movie Plus Productions, whose credits include Richard Gere-starrer “Norman,” Natalie Portman’s “A Tale of Love and Darkness,” and “Footnote,” Joseph Cedar’s 2015 Cannes best screenplay winner.

“When Heroes Fly,” (Omri Givon, Israel) Mette M. Bolstad, (“State of Happiness,” Norway)

Francesco Montanari “The Hunter,” (Marcello Izzo, Silvia Ebreul, Stefano Lodovichi, Fabio Paladini and Marzio Paoltroni, Italy)

Ran Danker, Raul Mendez, Aviv Carmi, Omer Ben David, Miguelito Sojuel, “Miguel,” (Tom Salama, Daphna Levin, Israel) Jan Inge “Ginge” Anvik (“State of Happiness”)

“Dominos,” (Zoe Pelchat, Canada )

has occurred in her home country, Italy, “but the poison seeps out” to other places as well.

Argento writes the essay in advance of her appearance this week at the Women in the World summit in New York. It’s posted on their website. (AP)

NORRISTOWN, Pa:

Women who LOS ANGELES, April 12, (AP): Mitzi Shore, owner of the Los Angeles club the Comedy Store and one of the most influential figures in stand-up for more than four decades, has died. She was 87.

Spokeswoman Jodi Gottlieb released a statement from the club announcing Shore’s death, calling her the “legendary godmother of the world famous Comedy Store” and “an extraordinary businesswoman and decades ahead of her time who cultivated and celebrated the artistry of stand-up comedy.”

say comedian Bill Cosby knocked them out with intoxicants and sexually assaulted them decades ago are finally getting a chance to confront him — and they aren’t holding back.

Janice Baker-Kinney returned to the witness stand on Thursday after punctuating her first two hours of testimony at Cosby’s sexual assault retrial in suburban Philadelphia with a firm declaration: “I was raped.”

One woman testifying on Wednesday pointedly called Cosby a “serial rapist,” while another choked back tears as she asked him, “You remember, don’t you, Mr. Cosby?”

The charged rhetoric irritated Cosby’s lawyers, who lost two bids for a mistrial, as prosecutors built a case that the man once revered as “America’s Dad” was one of Hollywood’s biggest predators long before he met Andrea Constand, the chief accuser in his retrial.

A Cosby spokeswoman dismissed the women’s testimony as “prosecution by distraction.”

Baker-Kinney has been unflappable under cross-examination, calling out Cosby lawyer Tom Mesereau for rolling his eyes at her and chiding the veteran defense attorney after she said he attempted to twist what she said about being assaulted. (AP)